Afterwards
by Cabitha
Summary: My take on what happens next, I suppose. CJXIan and GabeXSuki.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer, If I owned TP, we would be well into the fourth or fifth season by now.**

" I am just saying that we need to be honest here Ceej!"

"I'M TRYING" CJ yelled despairingly.

The trees shook around them, and it would look to an outsider that all was peaceful in these woods. Not for the couple in red blazers.

"I want to trust you, but you just make it so difficult!" Ian said softly, running his hand through his hair. He knew that Cj couldn't be reading him right now, his emotions were a tsunami, waves of love and hate crashing together, destroying all in their path.

"Would you give me a chance?" CJ cried, " I don't know how to do this! Give me some time to tell you."

Ian sat down on the ground, repeatedly messing with his hair, silent.

"I tried to lie as little as I could, it hurt when I could see how much you guys believed me. I didn't grow up at Tower, I didn't even grow up with Hea-my dad, and I have never met my mother. I grew up with an aunt, but I can't remember her now, they wiped my memory for safety."

CJ sighed, Gabe and Suki had very un-subtly given her and Ian some space. They knew that Ian had a hard time with trust.

"They wiped your memory for safety…" Ian prompted, looking at her with resigned eyes.

"Yeah, sometimes I can remember a little yellow house, but not much else. My dad wasn't mean to me when I came here, he was distant, aloof. But once I got settled, he started trying to talk to me, there wasn't much he could say to get me to trust him. But he showed me a birth certificate, showed me a passport. I read him, and I do believe that he's my dad." She sighed again, almost longingly,

"He blocks me most of the time, I don't know how he does it, but somehow I just couldn't do it. Suki and I started planning to escape, I meant it when I said that I was tired of being jerked around, but there's a loyalty to my father in me. I still can't let it go. I'll leave him, I will, I'll leave him and tower and come to live with you, but I have to believe that the woman in red was telling the truth."

"I don't" Ian said abruptly, "I think everything is more complicated than I'll ever know."

"Anyways, he started asking me about the escape plan, I don't know how he knew—maybe he could tell that I was sick of it—and he told me that he didn't support it, started to get angry. I wouldn't tell him anything until he found his bargaining chip. My mom."

CJ didn't cry, but she looked like she was in terrible pain, she shook and clenched and unclenched her teeth. Ian had to fight the protective instinct in him to hold her.

"I never met her Ian, I just wanted to know what she was like. I didn't—I didn't want to sell you guys out, but I just needed to hear her! Just once. Then twice. I'm sorry, okay?" She started to yell,

"I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY!" Ian held back again, unwilling to be tricked again.

"I can see it in your eyes Ian, is this hopeless? Why are you so careful with me, where with Gabe you would have forgiven him already?" CJ stared at him.

"My feelings…for you…are not…are not what they are for Gabe or Suki." Ian said cautiously.

" I know that, but I don't know…how that makes me less trustworthy than them." CJ replied with equal caution.

"Look at me, Ceej, what do you see?" Ian asked urgently.

CJ looked, blue-blue eyes, pupils dilated, mouth tense, all muscles engaged, he licked his lips and CJ looked concerned,

"You're going to—to take a risk, you're about to do something that you don't think you should do."

"On the nose, as usual," Ian whispered, "You win CJ," he brought his face close to hers, kissing her softly, for they were both unsure.

"C'mon, we need to decide where we go from here, let's get the others."

So… a TP fic? I haven't done one of these in a while, I really don't know where it's going, but I think it's going to be a multi-chap. Stay tuned?


	2. Chapter 2

**So I don't know where this is going, but stay tuned? Your reviews mean so much to me, It's so rare that anyone reviews TP stories anymore, I love you guys!**

They sat in a circle, silent. Alone in the woods, having escaped the hellhole that was Tower Prep, it was so strange to even consider that they would go back.

"Maybe there's a compromise, you know, deal with them from the outside?" Suki suggested hopelessly.

"But how Suki, they'd track us down if we tried to contact them!" Gabe sighed; if they left, the girls would have to come live with them, they had nowhere else to go. If they went back…they had no idea, but it might not be much worse off.

" All that work, we never had a plan for what to do once we got out, just live." Ian ran his hands through his hair.

CJ stayed silent.

The forest was dark, if they weren't going back today, they would have to find a place to camp. None relished the thought, they didn't know what creepy crawlies inhabited this forest. Malevolent creatures from all over the world, most likely.

"What if," Ian started uncertainly, "what if we went back, and lived in the tunnels?"

"But, Ian, Headmaster knows us, he wants us to fight with him! We may not want to do it, but if we go back, aren't we sort of saying that we will? Is that the commitment you want to make?"

"No, I just! I just, all this time when we were planning to leave-think of Emily, of Fenton? What about Howard? He just disappeared! I think that this entire time as we were planning to leave, we never saw who we were leaving behind! If we can bring Tower back to what it was meant to be, or even better just shut it down, we could help them!"

"Well, yeah Ian," Gabe said nervously, "but everyone will be looking for us, we can't just waltz back in! They'll kill us!"

"I'm also inclined to think that if we leave, we'll be playing even more into headmasters plans. He wants us to fight, he didn't say how…or where." Suki said forcefully as she readjusted her ponytail.

"But how would we even get back, Suki? Ian threw the key!"

"It's a simple lock, Gabe, we could wait here for a few days, pick the lock and go down into the tunnels!"

"What would we eat? Where would we sleep? What kind of life would that be?"

"WHAT KIND OF LIFE WOULD WE HAVE ANYWHERE ELSE?" CJ shouted, jolting everyone, "You and Ian think you can just walk back home? Bringing the two of us with you? You think Suki's parents and Tower wouldn't track us down? WE HAVE NO MORE OPTIONS!"

Everyone was silent.

"That settles that then. C'mon, Gabe, lets find some stuff to build a shelter, we'll leave tomorrow."


End file.
